Energy Reform: A Look at Clean Technologies, Alternative Fuels and Renewable Sources

BREATHE LA GREEN SALON SERIES 2009

Energy Reform
A Look at Clean Technologies, Alternative Fuels and Renewable Sources

Panelists

• S. David Freeman, Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commission President
•  Josh Tickell, documentary filmmaker (“Fuel” Best Documentary Sundance Film Festival 2008)

Responders

• Lee Wallach, President of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life of Southern California
• Peter McCarty, Board Member of Northridge East Neighborhood Council

BREATHE LA Green Salons feature expert panelists and elected and community leaders with meaningful discussions on important topics related to clean air and healthy lungs in Los Angeles. April 15th BREATHE LA GREEN SALON included a spirited discussion of alternative feuls, alternative energy sources, and the urgent need to take action to make nationwide commitment to acheive clean energy sooner than later. Panelists S. David Freeman and Josh Tickell argued for bold movement away from fossil fuels. Freeman addressed the apparent lack of will to make a commitment to change, the illogic of cap and trade, and the need to move beyond existing methods into the unknown, "You gotta learn how to spell xeriscape in this town."

Tickell decried activists who sidetracked potential alternative  energy sources in favor of desert preservation, "We have to be willing to make some sacrifices," and showed a clip from his documentary film "Fuel" which will have a special showing in Los Angeles at the Fine Arts Theater in Beverly Hills on Earth Day. Responders Lee Wallach, "A priest, a rabbi and a cleric walk into a legislator's office...it sounds like the opening to a joke, but it actually makes things happen. Legislators sit up and listen." and Peter McCarty,"In the San Fernando Valley, we aren't waiting for permission, we're going off the grid," were in agreement in principle on what needed to be done, but not on how to go about it. Responding to an audience question, S. David Freeman raised an unorthodox idea, "If you take squeamish out of the dictionary, you have endless sources for non fossil fuels and for drinking water," referring to technological promise of recycling garbage, sewage, restaurant waste and farmed green goo, algae, into fuels and water. The exchange reflected the out of the box tone of the conversation, and panelists and moderator Claudia Peschiutta, of KNX,  agreed there are more discussions to be had.

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BREATHE LA GREEN SALONS are FREE and open to the public. Light refreshments are served at each event. Read about the announcement of series at Los Angeles City Hall.

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